How can you help?

Soon I will be sending out Rafe's mailing address and his email address to those who want it. Rafe has asked that in general, he receive email because they will be moving so much that they might have to get rid of the mail they receive for practical purposes.

That doesn't mean you can't still send a letter of encouragement or with enclosures if you want to. It just means to be prepared that those items might be considered temporary and left behind or destroyed for security reasons. His email account does not delete his emails no matter how much time has passed, so he can check them as he has time, although he may not always have time to write back. He's said that the connection is like dial up.

I personally am still going to send him occasional mail; I think it's nice to receive something in the mail. I am going to send it with two things in mind - either it's something consumable (cookies, baby wipes, etc) or something I don't mind he throws away. It makes me crazy to think that he actually is so darn practical he won't miss getting real mail. I think he will miss it. But I'm not him, so I could be wrong.

I like sending letters of encouragement and good news. I generally don't complain about anything he can't really fix from Iraq, which would be ALL OF IT. It does no good to give him something to worry about without any way to resolve it. I always thought it was crazy when I heard about spouses who emailed their Marines with tales of woe and grief about how bad it was for them and how stressed out and worried they were.... and expected the Marine to somehow feel good about that and/or fix it in some way. Extreme lack of judgement in my opinion.